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Dystopia V: Spiral
Dystopia V: Spiral 'is the fifth and final saga of Dystopia timeline. Its name comes from Crimson Spiral, where the chosen of Khalmotep must face their final enemies. Spiral also be considered to have multiple meanings: the situation spirals out of control once the group discovers the true nature of their enemy; and Marolos spirals out of control as its split personality and visions of the future cloud its head. Story ''Continued from Dystopia IV: Countdown. The chapter begins with the four of them, Welkere, Micoda, Melody and Samael reaching the Crimson Spiral. The Bridge of Tomorrow docks into place on the sixth floor, as Marudeux had planned. However, Marudeux has overexerted himself and faints. The group faces the swordmaster Catastrophe, which comes as no surprise. They had assumed him to have allied with Gega, as his usually preferred sword had been visible. Melody and Samael find themselves disoriented and somehow feeling aftereffects since their separation. They understand that they have to fuse into Marolos since the fusion's power draws them together by force. Welkere taunts the swordmaster that they could have brought "Speaker" there with them. Catastrophe flinches at the mention of such a person, even though it is unknown who it refers to. Marolos attacks with brute force energy barrage, but it seems Catastrophe has mastered some forbidden arts and cannot be killed easily. He is dueling with his powerful swordplay against Micoda while being attacked by Marolos's energy techniques, but fighting back with his own like Hunter of Nemeses. His Fallen Blade Mode stops Marolos's fearsome technique, Desolation of Plains, in its tracks. The combat is largely between Micoda and Catastrophe, with Micoda landing the final blow and gaining his opponent's legendary sword, Skyfire. They continue on to face the dreaded Vizier Gega in the top floor of the fortress. Gega laughs at them, but Welkere taunts him by telling him of another fact. Many years ago, the enemies decided to build observatories to monitor people on the True World. However, the initial one malfunctioned and crushed. Welkere tells that he knows because he orchestrated the crash and took it as his own base. Just like Catastrophe, Gega is infuriated by this reveal. The group finally faces the mastermind who had caused them so much grief and manipulated them from the shadows. It proves to be a challenge unlike any they have faced. Gega outmaneuvers their attacks and wears them out using his taxing style. Even though Marolos attempted to crush him with mentally and physically powerful Wail of the Sun, he used Micoda as a human shield. When Welkere connected with the powerful close-combat Howl of the Millennium, he was unfortunate to learn that his opponent was not all that human, and still managed to stay on his feet. Their moves failed one by one, but even so he was unable to finish them off. Even a seeming headshot at Micoda was cancelled by Thoughtcraft, a latent power of Micoda. The three against one proves difficult nonetheless, and Gega fails to finish them. In the end, Gega opens a portal to let his allies from the floors below, Hadras and Clairvoyant Seer, fight the group. However, he is wrong. Instead Brimstone comes in through the portal and attacks him, forcing Gega to retreat. With Gega retreating, Marolos's will and imbalance between the three entities inside of it reach their end, causing it to spiral out of control and leave the area. The Spirit of Khalmotep leaves the body of the fusion elemental and re-joins Ferengeil, who finds himself fighting Hadras and Clairvoyant Seer with the trusted Robert Baramov by his side. Ferengeil and Baramov fight Hadras and Clairvoyant Seer and are joined by Seleka. In a flashy manner, Seleka brings the dragon down in one hit. Baramov then charges the Overloaded Axe technique and destroys Clairvoyant Seer. Seleka vanishes after the defeat of the guardian duo, and Ferengeil races to the top of the fortress only to meet Welkere who urges him to go on. Ahead he finds a sleeping Phantom of the Apocalypses, the feared enigmatic enemy from the Utopia timeline. '''It appears that its very existence has been kept a secret by Gega. Gega remains ever willing to commit to protecting his sleeping master with his life, and prepares to battle. In the end, what mattered to Ferengeil was Gega, who was the primary target of his revenge. Ferengeil unleashed a new kind of power which was Pure Vengeance Mode and attacked the man. Phantom used his mystical techniques to cause the attacks to backfire and Gega to remain relatively unharmed by them. "You cannot escape the dream! No one can!" ''he shouted ominously. Ferengeil realized that the seeming sleep and no initial energy flow in the Phantom was a ruse only to distract him, but he would not be stopped. Ferengeil unleashed Devil's Vendetta, an all-in move that physically struck the target. Phantom's mystical intervention failed to contain the sheer power and momentum of the attack, with the blow pushing Gega off the platform into a sure-death fall. With the attack's power wearing off, Phantom responded with ''"Burst of Banishment!" ''and caused Ferengeil to fall, purging the fox of all its Modes and powers, falling down to the sands of Sepmornia. Fallen but never completely so, the Spirit of Khalmotep was now ready to counter-attack. Wielding the power of itself rather than that of people, it summoned forth the power of nature and chose to wield Light. It rose upon the platform, Altar of One Power that lied in the skies, and the mighty warriors of Revolution Realm joined it, which allowed it to finally recognize that "Seleka" who had been helping Ferengeil was merely someone in disguise. The mystical goliath unleashed Images of Ruin, a fearsome mental assault to destroy everyone's will to fight. The Spirit of Khalmotep understood it had to choose a champion. Naturally, the one hero for the task was Micoda, who became coated in Light, relieving others of the distress caused by Phantom. The flash also succeeded in reminding him of a long forgotten memory of a similar moment in his battle against Alypos, where he established Infinite Legion. So began the battle which spirits dubbed Battle for Humanity's Future. The first few attacks already proved how formidable their foe was. Micoda charged into battle and cut the Phantom's index finger, only to have it stab him in the chest seconds later. However, he went berserk instead of dying, and the assault upon the Phantom continued. Welkere managed to unleash seals upon the monstrous entity, but they seemed to have no effect. The attacks continued but they understood any mistake could cost them their lives. Two new unexpected combatants appeared: Moth (a.k.a Silver of The Trinity) who was carrying the Spirit of Khalmotep and Ghast General Grafen. While the two of them were likely on the warpath with each other, they wanted to rid the world of the Phantom even more. Their attacks were seemingly effective. However, the moment Grafen pulled his longsword out of Phantom's torso, it exploded upon him and killed him on the spot. As Phantom showed no remorse and struck back, many of them, including Brimstone, Neolin, Therigem and Trinitius, suffered heavy damage. Welkere started to use more of his power and told the others that Phantom's power was from the very fact that it had knowledge of every possible angle of attack its enemies could use due to the fact that "''it had dreamt of all possibilities in its sleep", and was the very reason they would have to "escape the dream". Welkere emphasized that only novel techniques and unexpected things could possibly surprise such a clairvoyant enemy. Micoda's berserk attacks only caused him to be crushed under the Phantom's fist. As the group continued to fight back against the overwhelming might of their foe, Welkere finally attempted a powerful and possibly final blow: Unmaking of Phantoms. However, that seal-based and highly original extremely damaging technique still failed, as Phantom went to drastic measures to cut off its own skin and shred its armor. That way Welkere was unable to unleash the power of the seals upon the goliath. Phantom of the Apocalypses went even further by crafting a new runed skin to cover it, appearing even stronger in this new Runic Form. Welkere and Revo unleashed their full power and went after the enemy who had collapsed the platform on which they battled. As Revo unleashed the close-range Winds of Revolution, the Phantom took minor damage only to attempt a fully powered counter-attack. Before he could smash his enemies with it, a masked agent of Khalmotep parried the attack with seemingly its bare hand, negating it. The Phantom of the Apocalypses was now entirely shocked, and quickly moved back. Its ability to plan ahead had been compromised. The caped individual was revealed to be Heart, Micoda's wolf ally who had been killed by Clairvoyant Seer. It repelled the Images of Ruin that was unleashed upon it and struck back with Blade of Courage, a move used by Micoda. It also cut through Phantom's attack. It took a pause and focused upon Moth, the one chosen by the Spirit of Khalmotep, to throw him a fragment of Khalmotep's power, Ring of Linked Steps. After leaving Moth to do battle against Phantom of the Apocalypses, Spirit of Khalmotep attempted to re-unite with Marolos, who had been lost to madness after the fight against Gega. Marolos had appeared at a curious scene at an unknown peaceful town in Stardust Rim, having just purged a house from existence. A green observer, The Magician, Lutir and Heart the wolf-man all arrived at the scene, with all of them leaving except for Lutir, staying back as he wanted to observe Heart who wished to do battle against Marolos. Heart pummeled Marolos, now a being ablaze like an elemental with both Viridian Voice and Might of Light ignited throughout it. Through its attacks, Marolos's shell of energies destabilized enough to let Spirit of Khalmotep escape and be absorbed into Heart, uniting the two emissaries of Khalmotep against the powerful elemental. Recognizing the immense power that it now wielded, it unleashed Disastrous Claw and dealt follow-up critical hits upon Marolos. To finish things off, the wolf-man unleashed Viridian Seal of Slumber and Emerald Imprisonment to contain the being for ages to come. However, Samael's voice could be heard as it began to be sealed away by the technique, and he communicated through runes an ominous prophecy: THE NEXT AGE WILL NOT LAST. EVERYTHING WILL FALL INTO RUIN. Meanwhile, the fight between Phantom of the Apocalypses and its enemies ended. While result of the fight is unknown, but it is possible that Phantom emerged victorious. was later told to Micoda that [[Welkere] concentrated his energies to a suicidal explosion, taking out many of his allies as well as dealing heavy damage to the Phantom of the Apocalypses. The attack was a novel and sudden attempt that the Phantom could not expect, exactly as Welkere had told others to act.]''' For unknown reasons, Rudigar had used his aptly called Unfathomable Rune and left his post as the Captain of the Guard to detect Phantom of the Apocalypses and face the mighty goliath alone in the skies. Rudigar's battle prowess was immense, and the two barely exchanged attacks before culminating in a clash of their strongest techniques: Godhand of Dimensions as a novel technique from Rudigar and Downfall of Elements to sever all runic power from its enemy from Phantom of the Apocalypses. In a flash of light, they became trapped in a powerful explosion that the Phantom recognized as its end and cried out, understanding the futility of its situation. As such, the Phantom of the Apocalypses was defeated, and the Dystopia timeline concluded shortly after. After it began the prophesized Rise of Corporations timeline... Interlude In an interlude from Dystopian timeline to the Fall of Corporations timeline, an unknown figure only known as Godhunter fights Chronos, God of Time. Themes * "Dream", a power of prediction and nearly omniscience that was so strong its user almost cannot be defeated. ** The power made it so strong that it fought an entire group of world's strongest at the same time and remained almost undamaged. Only through Welkere's advice did they stand a chance. *** Its weaknesses were then abused, such as with Heart being the unseen secret weapon of Khalmotep that intervened and fought the enemy. * Marolos. Even after fusing from many important allies (Samael, Melody and Sol Paul) it is then the ally who becomes so unstable it has to be defeated. ** New unknown powers manifested that it did not have before. It had visions of the future and unclassifiable supernatural powers. This makes it a really powerful entity. *** The vision with a prophecy had a dark tone, though. The next timeline will be thrown into some kind of chaos. * Ferengeil's quest for revenge. ** Finally reaching an end for his quest of purpose and revenge, he defeated the man whom he hated with passion. He was defeated by the true enemy, but not completely. * Welkere's master plan. ** He was happy to give them a decisive advantage by informing the united factions of the enemy's strengths and thus allow them to identify its weaknesses. *** Interestingly their unity was due to Marudeux's efforts. * Unity against Phantom of the Apocalypses, the enemy of so many. ** About all factions, including Ghasts, wanted him dead. *** Even Marudeux, who was considered a real enemy, was just looking for possibilities to unite the chosen of Khalmotep and test them so they'd be strong enough. * The disguised character that appeared as Seleka. ** Why not just fight the final battle as yourself? Who would benefit from disguising? ** The primary suspect is The Clocksmith. But even he lacks a motive for not being straightforward, except that he does that often for seemingly no reason. Maybe he anticipated that they'd lose after all? ** Other possibilities include The Magician, the green observer, the "Speaker" that Welkere mentioned etc. * The purging incident. It has to be important, since The Magician, the "green observer" and Heart wanted to witness it. ** Heart did so even while leaving the Battle for Humanity's Future behind. ** Why was The Magician unhappy seeing it and likewise the green observer happy to see it? ** Was there some kind of enemy lurking there in that peaceful town? ** Was there something that Marolos, now having essentially become a prophet, saw that made him want to affect the future by destroying that house?